1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile telephone, and more particularly, to a mobile telephone having a voice recognition function to perform a part of mobile telephone functions by making entry of a voice, or speaking, to the mobile telephone.
2. Description of the Related art
Heretofore, there have been proposed various types of mobile telephones, of which a typical one is explained hereinbelow with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show examples of display on a LCD screen in a conventional mobile telephone. FIG. 1A shows an example of evoked reception history contents displayed on a LCD screen, and FIG. 1B shows an example of evoked transmission history contents displayed on a LCD screen.
Some of conventional mobile telephone are provided with a function to keep a reception history including data such as a call arrival time, caller""s name, caller""s phone number, and so on, comprised of calls arriving at the mobile telephone, and a transmission history including data such as a subscriber""s name or classifying information, phone number, and so on, of a destination telephone to which a user of the mobile telephone has made a call.
The reception and transmission history function makes it possible to keep a plurality of reception and transmission history data. The reception or transmission history is evoked and displayed on a LCD display through a key operation made by a user of a mobile telephone. By a further key operation, the data of the reception and transmission history can be displayed one after another on a LCD screen, as illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B.
As mentioned above, a telephone user has to make such key operations to evoke and display reception or transmission history on a LCD display. Namely, it is not so easy to evoke reception and transmission history in the conventional mobile telephone without such key operations.
In addition, a further complicated and troublesome key operation is required for retrieving desired reception or transmission history and displaying on a screen, based on a date and time, for example, of a call having been received or transmitted.
The inventor filed a patent application as the Japanese patent application No. 9-274609 concerning a mobile telephone with a voice recognition function. The application discloses a mobile telephone adapted to be able to perform a variety of functions by making entry of a voice, or speaking, to a user""s telephone. It should be noted that the applicant cites the above-identified application merely for better understanding of the present invention, but does not admit the application as prior art. The above-identified application will be published for public inspection on about March or April 1999.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 4-306944 has suggested a mobile telephone including a voice recognizer, a head set, and a switch electrically connected to the head set. Only while the switch is being actuated, a voice is made entry to the voice recognizer from the head set, thereby transmission can be made by a voice of a user.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-316193 has suggested a mobile communication terminal comprising means for constructing subscribers"" number data base and inputting conditions for retrieving data through a voice, means for scrolling retrieved data, and means for transmitting a call based on the thus scrolled data.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-221819 has suggested a telephone including a timer, a display, and an automatic transmitter for transmitting a call to a time service station to thereby have the present time. The thus obtained present time is phonetically recognized, and the thus phonetically recognized present time is set in the timer and displayed on the display.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8-182053 has suggested a mobile communication terminal including a screen on which data such as reception/transmission date and time, and a destination telephone number, is displayed when a redial button is actuated.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8-186654 has suggested a mobile communication terminal including means for switching a mode between a terminal mode and a telephone mode, means for making radio-communication with a host computer, means for receiving a voice input and recognizing the received voice, and means for mixing voices and outputting them.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8-274864 has suggested a telephone which extracts telephone directory data having been transmitted from an opponent telephone, and stores the thus extracted data in a first memory, ensuring that a user can redial a call to the opponent telephone.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-326854 has suggested a telephone including a program which provides a user both a program brunch having been in advance selected by the user and options available by the user in the program brunch, when the user inputs a help signal thereto. The above-identified Publication is based on the Dutch application numbered 96101369.5 filed on Jan. 30, 1997.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-250532 has suggested a radio telephone unit including means for inputting a voice therethrough, means for converting the thus input voice into audio data, means for comparing the thus converted audio data with audio data stored in advance in a memory, and means for removing prohibition of reception and transmission of a call.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3-3539 has suggested an automobile telephone in which command voices are compared with voice data stored in advance in a memory. If they are coincident with each other, the stored voice data are listed. On the other hand, if they are not coincident with each other, possible ones are retrieved among the stored voice data, and listed. One or more can be selected among the thus listed voice data.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-78041 has suggested a codeless telephone having a voice recognizer which sets a threshold value for detecting a voice period, in accordance with a number indicative of a telephone as a transmitter, and properly detects a voice period, based on input voice signals. Thus, a standard pattern of stored words and a characteristic pattern of input words can be detected.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8-8812 has suggested a digital mobile telephone including a digital signal processor which recognizes a voice transmitted from a microphone, and displays the recognition results on a screen.
The above-mentioned Publications make it possible for a user to retrieve data by inputting voice data thereinto. However, they have to have a complicated structure to do so.
In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved mobile telephone adapted to have a simpler structure, but allow a user thereof to refer to reception and/or transmission history without any key operation.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method of retrieving reception and/or transmission history in a mobile telephone in a simpler manner.
In one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mobile telephone including (a) a voice recognizer for recognizing a voice made entry thereinto, (b) a memory storing reception/transmission history therein, and (c) a controller for evoking the reception/transmission history from the memory on entry of a voice into the voice recognizer.
It is preferable that if a plurality of reception/transmission history are stored in the memory, the controller evokes the reception/transmission history one after another on entry of a voice into the voice recognizer.
There is further provided a mobile telephone including (a) a voice recognizer for recognizing a voice made entry thereinto, (b) a real-time identifier for identifying the current time, (c) a memory storing reception/transmission history therein in association with the time at which reception/transmission was made, and (d) a controller, on entry of a voice identifying a certain time, into the voice recognizer, for evoking the reception/transmission history from the memory, based on the identified time.
In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of retrieving reception/transmission history in a mobile telephone, including the steps of (a) storing reception/transmission history, (b) recognizing a voice of an operator, and (c) evoking the reception/transmission history on entry of a voice into the mobile telephone.
It is preferable that if there are stored a plurality of reception/transmission history, the reception/transmission history is evoked one after another in the step (c).
There is further provided a method of retrieving reception/transmission history in a mobile telephone, including the steps of (a) identifying the time at which reception/transmission was made, and storing reception/transmission history in association with the thus identified current time, (b) recognizing a voice of an operator, and (c) on entry of a voice identifying a certain time, into the mobile telephone, evoking the reception/transmission history, based on the identified time.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a mobile telephone having a voice recognition function, adapted to be able to display or retrieve reception and/or transmission history data merely by entry of a voice thereinto without effecting any key operation.
The above and other objects and advantageous features of the present invention will be made apparent from the following description made with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the drawings.